With the elections less than a week away, an organization of murder victims’ family members is expressing concern about the record of Arizona Congressional Candidate Kyrsten Sinema. She is running against Vernon Parker for the newly drawn 9th Congressional District seat.

“We only recently became aware,” said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, national President and co-founder of NOVJL, the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers (www.teenkillers.org) ,”that someone was running in a close race for the United States Congress who had such an extreme and alarming record on victims’ rights and public safety. Our hearts have been broken already. Part of our mission has been to work to ensure that no one else ever has to go through what we have gone through.”

In 2008 Kyrsten Sinema sponsored HB 2293 in the Arizona legislature. Thankfully, it did not pass, but it would have undone life without parole sentences given to convicted murderers just shy of their 18th birthdays who committed highly aggravated murders in Arizona. Her proposal was for 25 year sentences instead. The legislation as written would have violated Arizona’s strong protections for the rights of crime victims. In fact, Arizona has among the best protections for the rights of crime victims in the nation. Sinema’s bill would also have endangered the public with early release of extremely violent offenders who were found, through full due process of law, to need to be incarcerated for life for the protection of Arizona residents. Finally, her legislation would have increased the cost to taxpayers of the handling of these offender’s cases, already a great burden on the public.

After examining the solid position that Congressional Candidate Vernon Parker is taking on the vital issue of victims’ rights in the criminal justice system, and the right of the public to be kept safe from the most dangerous and violent offenders, NOVJL members wanted Arizona residents to be aware of the differences between these two candidates on this important issue.

NOVJL’s victim stories, extensive research on the issue of teens who kill, national news reports, and legislative updates can be found at www.teenkillers.org. Email us at NOVJL@aol.com.

Phoenix – Auggie Bartning released the following statement today regarding his opposition to Prop 121.

“Prop 121 or the “Top Two” does nothing to serve Arizonans, but rather will limit their choices on elections and will limit any chance for third-party success. Arizona does not need a system that provides more power to party leaders and costs the state more money to implement. The Top Two system would also cause elections to become more expensive and would discourage well qualified candidates from running.”

Auggie will appear on the Dennis Wilenchick radio show at 4:05pm today. Please tune in to KFNX 1100AM and hear what Auggie has to say about this election’s propositions and other topics that are important to the growth and stability of our great state.

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Auggie Bartning is a Republican running for Arizona State Senate in the twenty-fourth Legislative District.

PHOENIX, AZ – Maricopa County Sheriff candidate Paul Penzone and two fellow Democrats had their hopes dashed today after prematurely calling a press conference to applaud the county Board of Supervisors’ decision to offer a massive settlement in a jailhouse death claim against Sheriff Arpaio.

Problem is, the Board refused to settle the claim today and instead sided with Sheriff Arpaio to go back to trial and fight the lawsuit.

“Penzone did today what many inexperienced politicians do. He came to an incorrect conclusion, jumped the gun, called a press conference and looked foolish in the process,” says Chad Willems, Arpaio’s campaign manager.

To save face, Penzone and his Democrat colleagues, former Phoenix mayor Terry Goddard and former TV reporter Frank Camacho, went on to level accusations against Arpaio and his office, again without the benefit of accurate knowledge and verifiable data.

The three Democrats told reporters the manner in which Arpaio runs the Sheriff’s Office costs taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money in legal fees.

But the data says something altogether different. The MCSO’s legal fee payouts are far less than the Phoenix Police Department and neighboring Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, which also operates a mega-jail system.

Since 1993, when Arpaio was first elected Sheriff, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has paid out a total of $45 million dollars in lawsuits from vehicle accidents to inmate claims. In that same time period, Phoenix Police Department, which does NOT have a jail system with 8500 inmates, has paid over $74 million dollars in legal fees. And in just the last ten (10) years, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office has paid out a whopping $274 million dollars in legal fees alone.*

“Sheriff Arpaio is an excellent manager and a responsible steward of the taxpayers’ money,” said Willems. “He runs the third largest jail system in the nation yet continues to come in under budget nearly every year and has returned $40 million to the taxpayers in the last ten years alone. Penzone is either totally ignorant of these facts or is once again deliberately misleading the public.”

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*The LASO is the nation’s largest Sheriff’s Office, followed by (2) Cook County Chicago and (3) the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Phoenix.

Arizona Democrat congressional candidate and criminal defense lawyer Kyrsten Sinema has an unusual affection for politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, DC, and it is a relationship that would endanger Arizona’s families and taxpayers if she were able to get to Congress.

Her US Department of Education fetish

All sensible people love education, and want policies to improve our educational system. But not all policies branded “pro-education” are designed first and foremost to help students; many of them help those in the education industry more.

For example, Sinema seized on Vernon Parker’s wise preference for local control of education decisions and has ruthlessly misrepresented his position. Parker’s education plan is here, but put that aside for a moment and just consider her position. She is the biggest cheerleader of the US Department of Education since failed Democrat President Jimmy Carter created it in the 1970s.

Somehow, Americans put a man on the moon, invented the artificial heart, launched Apple, Microsoft, Target and Coca-Cola, and did it all before the US Department of Education existed. In fact, American K-12 educational achievement has been completely stagnant since the 1970s, as countless studies have demonstrated. We have spent billions of dollars on the massive Ed Dept bureaucracy without making schools better! It’s a failure only a Big Government Liberal like Kyrsten Sinema could forgive.

Too bad Sinema represents murderers rather than bringing civil lawsuits, because the Department of Education should be sued for false advertising.

Sure, you say, K-12 education has made no progress under Ed Dept control, but what about college level learning? Well, as Barack Obama wrote in his book The Audacity of Hope:

“China is graduating eight times as many engineers as the United States every year.”

And as Obama’s jobs council honcho and US jobs exporter Jeffrey Immelt of GE said a few years ago:

“More people will graduate in the United States in 2006 with sports-exercise degrees than electrical-engineering degrees. So, if we want to be the massage capital of the world, we’re well on our way.”

Does ANYONE believe the massive US Department of Education bureaucracy has done anything to address this issue? Of course not.

How about college costs? Since the 1970s, college costs have SOARED, and education inflation dramatically outpaces overall inflation. I would contend the US Ed Dept has contributed to this problem, but even if you don’t want to go there, at least we can all agree that they have not fixed it. Check out this chart, which basically tracks college costs since Jimmy Carter created the Ed Dept.

The Ed Dept also administers college loan programs, but those programs could be run more efficiently and at less cost – and thus be able to help more students – were the Beltway Bandits not taking a cut of every education dollar that flows through the system.

The salary of these workers – who work 9-5, can’t be fired, and have lavish government benefits and pensions – averages over $100,000! [See page Z-21] A nice gig, but a pretty long, 5-hour commute from Maricopa County.

So let’s summarize Sinema’s position on education: The US Department of Education in Washington, DC is essential to our nation’s educational system and cannot be improved, reformed or streamlined. It is better to take a dollar of an Arizonan, send it to Washington, have the Beltway take its cut for bureaucrats, consultants, waste, fraud and abuse, and then cross our fingers and hope that they send some portion of that dollar back to Arizona for its schools.

That’s her position! The notion of keeping that Arizona dollar in Arizona for Arizona’s schools offends her Beltway mentality.

Sinema’s Government Healthcare will be hazardous to your health (and wallet)

Sinema did not just support Obamacare; she helped craft it as a member of Obama’s health care takeover task force. She was there for the bill-signing and supports it to this day! Of course, she can also read polls, and she knows the American people despise the law, so she has started saying the bill has some “stinkers” in it that she promises to change. Yeah, right.

I’m not going to rehash all that is wrong with Obamacare. Among the most shocking provisions is its raid on Medicare funding. Sinema’s Obamacare law will take $716 BILLION from Medicare over the next 10 years to help reduce Obamacare’s massive cost. Seniors deserve better.

What’s ridiculous is that Sinema is actually running a campaign ad boasting that Obamacare provides free birth control! A $16 trillion federal debt, the economy barely growing, Arizonans desperately in need of good jobs, and she is talking about free rubbers.

Wait … what’s that you say? Obamacare does NOT provide free rubbers, which give decent protection against STDs and HIV/AIDS, but DOES give free birth control pills that provide ZERO protection against STDs and HIV/AIDS? Only a government program could provide “free” (i.e., YOU paying for it) stuff so incompetently.

Obamacare must go, but if Sinema gets to Congress, its co-author and cheerleader will fight tooth and nail to protect it.

Literally giving an extra vote to the DC Beltway

Sinema’s support for Washington, DC is not just a rhetorical one. She would not just vote metaphorically for more power in Washington. She LITERALLY supports giving the DC Beltway an extra vote!

As a State Legislator in Arizona, she actually introduced a bill pushing for Washington, DC, to get a vote in Congress – as if the DC Beltway wasn’t already too rich and powerful! She’d cancel your Congressional vote with a new one for Washington. That’s not just goofy, it’s bad policy for your children and grandchildren. And if she gets to Congress, her silly Arizona bill would become a very real Congressional bill.

We can’t afford to send Kyrsten Sinema to Washington. The obvious choice in this election is Vernon Parker.

AUDIT: “…doesn’t discipline doctors, even when its own investigators discover cases in whichdoctors violated state statutes, the audit says.” (“Medical Board Still Too Lenient,” The Arizona Republic, 10/1/99)

“…the agency has come under a steady stream of criticism from legislators, good-government groups, patients and even some doctors – all charging that the board of medical examiners, or BOMAX, has not effectively policed errant physicians.” (“BOMEX Reform Still A Bit Wobbly,” The Arizona Republic, 4/18/99)

“Even though it has been through a complete overhaul, the agency that protects Arizonans from bad doctors still is too soft on errant physicians and takes too long to handle cases, the state auditor general says.” (“Medical Board Still Too Lenient,” The Arizona Republic, 10/1/99)

“…inadequate investigations of complaints, dismissed 144 of them against doctors during a special video-conference meeting Thursday in Tucson and Tempe.” (“Medical Investigators Dismiss 144 Cases,” Tucson Citizen, 7/24/99)

Arizona Medical Association Won’t Endorse Carmona

“It goes a long way to explain why the Arizona Medical Association, of which Carmona was a board member, has failed to endorse his Senate run. When those closest to a candidate fail to endorse, it’s a signal for the rest of us.” (“Dem. Senate Candidate Carmona Failed to Keep Bad Doctors Accountable,” Breitbart News, 10/30/12)

PHOENIX — No New Taxes, No on 204 today released its newest television advertisement titled, “5 Reasons.” Business and community leaders across the state all agree that the $1 billion permanent sales tax burden that Prop 204 will place on hardworking families and small business owners is bad public policy. Although there are 100 things wrong with the initiative, the top five reasons are highlighted in this 30 second spot.

Script For “5 Reasons:”

VIDEO TEXT: 5 REASONS TO VOTE NO ON PROP 204

VIDEO TEXT: 1 – LARGEST PERMANENT TAX INCREASE IN ARIZONA HISTORY
1 BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR

ANNOUNCER: “5 reasons to vote no on Prop 204. 204 is the largest permanent tax increase in Arizona’s history.”

VIDEO TEXT: 2 – SECOND HIGHEST SALES TAXES IN AMERICA

ANNOUNCER: “Arizona would have the second highest sales taxes in America.”

VIDEO TEXT: 3 – NO EDUCATION REFORM

ANNOUNCER: “Groups all across Arizona say 204 has no education reform.”

VIDEO TEXT: 4 – WRITTEN BY SPECIAL INTERESTS IN SECRET

ANNOUNCER: “204 was written by special interests in secret.”

VIDEO TEXT: 5 – ARIZONA REPUBLIC STRONGLY OPPOSES

ANNOUNCER: “And The Republic opposes 204 saying it:

“…is bad public policy…burdening the poor far more than the well-to-do…”

A revolutionary school choice program in Arizona known as “education savings accounts” is expanding educational options in unprecedented ways for families whose children’s needs have not been met by traditional public schools. Meanwhile, legislators in Florida, Utah, and Iowa have considered enacting the program in their states.

In a new report released Tuesday, Goldwater Institute Education Director Jonathan Butcher charts the origin and successes of Arizona’s first-of-its-kind education savings account program, and outlines a roadmap for any state looking to create a program of its own.

Conceived of by the Goldwater Institute in 2005 and first approved by the Arizona Legislature in 2011 for special-needs children, education savings accounts allow families to receive 90 percent of the funds the state would have spent on a child in a public school. Those funds may be used for private school tuition, homeschooling, virtual schooling, school materials, or other educational expenses.

More than 150 Arizona families of special-needs children took advantage of the program in its first year. This school year, 400 children are using an education savings account. Beginning in 2013, the program will be expanded to children in failing schools, children of active-duty military families, and children adopted out of the foster system. This expansion will make over 200,000 Arizona children—or 1 in 5—eligible for the program.

Today’s report features stories of children whose lives have been positively changed by education savings accounts. Nathan has autism and was still unable to form sentences at six years old. He struggled in his large kindergarten class where his busy teacher could not meet his special needs. Nathan’s mother applied for an education savings account, and was able to enroll Nathan in a specialized school that serves autistic children. Thanks to his education savings account, Nathan has blossomed, learning to speak and ask questions, and his future looks bright.

“The program is a boon to families, because they’re able to meet their children’s specific educational needs, and it’s a boon to taxpayers, because the program is a net-savings for the state,” said Butcher. “Education savings accounts are by far the most innovative school choice program to date.”

Nearly 40 states contain a constitutional provision known as the Blaine Amendment, which prohibits the direct transfer of government funds to private schools and has made crafting school choice programs that enable children to attend private schools challenging. Education savings accounts do not pose these constitutional challenges because, when a family receives an account, the funds become privately held and administered. When the Arizona teachers’ union brought a legal challenge to education savings accounts earlier this year, the court found the accounts did not violate the state constitution.

For any state legislature considering education savings account programs, Butcher outlines how to determine eligibility, funding sources, allowable expenses, and fraud prevention. The Goldwater Institute will continue to work with policymakers throughout the country to encourage adoption of the program.

The Goldwater Institute protects America’s greatest inheritance—the liberty and economic freedom of the individual—by holding government accountable and standing up for regular taxpayers just like you. Learn more about the Goldwater Institute at www.goldwaterinstitute.org.

Ron Barber believes that President Obama’s policies have benefited the middle class. With 23 million Americans out of work, 46 million Americans on food stamps, and the country $16 trillion in debt…have Ron Barber and the President helped you?

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